Identified Technologies

Identified Technologies’ fully managed commercial drone solution offers construction companies greater project visibility, saving time and money. “You can’t make smart decisions without data, and historically site data has been both expensive and scarce,” CEO Dick Zhang explains. “We are helping our clients achieve 70 to 90 percent reductions in their survey spending, even while capturing more data more frequently.”

The Pittsburgh, Pa.-based solutions company was founded in 2013 with a focus on technology, drones and the construction industry. Today, Identified Technologies serves construction and excavation, energy and gas, engineering and surveying, mining and aggregate, and solid waste and landfill industries throughout North America.

“It’s an end-to-end solution serving everyone from heavy civil contractors to mining leaders,” Zhang notes. “For the first time in history, managers are able to cost-effectively make fast, informed decisions with continuous job site visibility and tracking.”

Data at Your Fingertips

Identified Technologies allows its clients to track job sites with the push of a button. The company uploads the flight plan for the drone, which operates in auto flight; the data is captured as the drone flies over the site in minutes, instead of the months it would take using traditional methods. The site data is then uploaded and automatically processed so the company can analyze their job site and get answers to their most important project management questions.

“Imagine working on a big highway or a job site the size of Central Park,” Zhang says. “Site mapping is needed in order for companies to make informed decisions. Our automated technology does everything except push the button to start the drone. The drone flies itself and our integrated services and software take care of regulations, flight planning, processing, data storage and analytics.”

In June, Identified Technologies partnered with DJI, the world’s leading aerial imaging company, to provide world-class technology to its customers. The company integrated its software and services with DJI’s Inspire aerial imaging platform to increase project visibility and team productivity for industrial leaders.

As a fully managed commercial drone solution, Identified Technologies provides all the hardware, software and training needed. “We train your employee so they can be legally certified to operate the drone,” Zhang explains. “The training normally just takes a few hours so companies don’t have to hire extra personnel and no specialized skill set is required.”

In July, Identified Technologies began offering the Boomerang UAV solution with integrated post-processing kinematic (PPK) for clients in construction, energy and mining. “PPK dramatically reduces the need for laying of ground control points,” the company says. “It also saves companies thousands of man hours and drastically increases the ease, accuracy and profitability of using a commercial drone solution.”

“We are thrilled to be offering this groundbreaking technology to our clients,” Zhang adds. “In addition to the substantial cost savings that drone mapping can provide, we are now able to help companies get that information faster, through easier and more intuitive processes that can reduce data gathering time by up to 75 percent.”

Empowering Decisions

The focus of the industry has shifted from the actual drone to the software and services that are available using it. Identified Technologies found its niche there, offering a more efficient and cost-effective data gathering solution. The company empowers its customers with accurate insights so they can “Know when others guess™.”

Identified Technologies prides itself on helping companies in construction and excavation reduce costs and win more business with job site data and analytics. The company empowers ENR 400 and Fortune 500 companies with mapping, cost, progress and profitability forecasting. “There are billions of dollars at stake on these projects that require survey and volume metrics,” Zhang says. “The analytics we provide help at every stage of projects, from initial bidding, to planning and tracking, to financial reconciling and quality assurance.”

“Understanding progress, cost, how much to bill, inventory and production is vital to the project,” he continues. “The whole business revolves around this. Companies have historically spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on surveys and we’re helping them reduce their spending by 70 to 90 percent. On a fast moving, fast changing job site, old data is inaccurate data. Instead of getting information updated once a year with traditional surveys, customers are getting accurate information flying drones as often as three times a week. The information is updated 150 times more frequently, so you’re able to make smart decisions based off of where your job site is now, not where it was last year.”

Moving forward, Identified Technologies is integrating its job site tracking solution with the internet of things (IoT) for further impact. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Tracking and analytics are essential and the next natural step is using those insights to automate and optimize operations. Our newest offering Truck IQ is like a Fitbit for trucks and heavy equipment,” Zhang says. “We want everything on site – the project, equipment and people – connected and tying it into the world of IoT for a new level of speed, safety and savings.”